That was all that happened.
The pall of loss was like looking at the darkest place in space and trying to count the stars, knowing all the while that there was more darkness behind it.
Everything else paled in comparison.
The politics. The anger. The fear.
Nothing else registered with him.
Only the people.
CHAPTER 37
Aldrin Station
Local Dates: January 18, 2215
A memorial was held for the Everguard dead, and then the skeleton of the ship was scuttled shortly after.
When the scuttling service had finished, Torrance went to one of Aldrin Station’s many observation panels to stand alone and just watch space as it expanded on its way into darkness. It felt as cold and distant as he did. He was tired. He felt stretched in a hundred different ways. He felt out of sync with his quarters in Aldrin Station, and hadn’t slept well.
And yet, despite the crevasse of loss that was etched into his mind, he thought about Thomas Kitchell lying in his bed, not giving up, already planning what he was going to do when he was all healed up.
As he looked out at the bright glow of the Alpha Centauri trinary, he pulled the data crystal from his pocket. The Eden files were loaded in that matrix. Its translucent tint made the piece look almost liquid against the palm of his hand.
“LC?”
He put the crystal back into his pocket as he turned.
It was Ensign Whalen, who had also attended the service. She was dressed in a purple sarong draped over a black tank and pants.
“Very nice,” Torrance said, motioning the dress. “I haven’t seen that before.”
“I’m decommissioning, sir. Going Earthside. My parents say some friends, well, they’ve got a job for me.”
“You’ll do great.”
“I wanted to thank you, sir. For everything you did.”
“You’re welcome. Let me know if I can ever give you a recommendation.”
“Thank you.”
They stood and watched space together.
“What are you going to do next, sir?” Whalen asked.
Torrance smiled.
“A few weeks ago I was pretty sure I was going to do the same thing you are.”
“And now?”
Kitchell’s words echoed in his mind as Torrance turned to her. The boy was still youthful enough to be brash at times, but he was whip smart.
“To be honest with you,” he said. “I don’t have a clue what’s next for me. But a good friend of mine says that when your time comes you have to take a chance. So now I think I’m going to take a little time to get my act together, and then I’m going to do everything I can to find out what life is really about.”
Whalen gave a toothy smile.
“Sounds like a wise friend.”
“Yes,” Torrance said as he stared out into space. “I’ve learned a lot from him.”
This is the end of
STARFLIGHT
STEALING THE SUN: BOOK 1
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STARBURST
STARFALL
STARCLASH
STARBORN
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ron Collins is an Amazon best-selling Dark Fantasy author who writes across the spectrum of speculative fiction.
His fantasy series Saga of the God-Touched Mage reached #1 on Amazon’s bestselling dark fantasy list in the UK and #2 in the US. His short fiction has received a Writers of the Future prize and a CompuServe HOMer Award, and his short story “The White Game” was nominated for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2016 Derringer Award.
He has contributed a hundred or so short stories to Analog, Asimov’s, Fiction River Anthology Series, and several other magazines and anthologies (including several editions of the Fiction River Anthology Series).
He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and has worked to develop avionics systems, electronics, and information technology before chucking it all to write full-time–which he now does from his home in the shadows of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As usual, I’ve got more people to thank than I’ll be able to remember. Since, as I noted in the introduction, this work grew out of a story I wrote during a workshop, I’ll start by giving posthumous thanks to AJ Budrys. AJ let me know I was onto something with his gruff “pretty good” critique of the original short story, as well as pointers on a few places it could be made better. And I thank Dr. Schmidt for running that story in Analog back in the day.
I certainly thank Analog readers for giving the short story a runners-up slot in the AnLab Awards voting that year, and to Locus for putting it on their Recommended Reading list. Those two things kept me working, even when I wasn’t sure how to make it work.
Thanks to my fantastic set of early readers and advance publication group. This kind of support is beyond invaluable in worth, yet impossible to repay. Thank you so much.
Thanks to one of my favorite authors, Robert J. Sawyer, for the very generous comment that somehow made it to the front of the book (sheepish grin).
I also thank every beta reader of the novel in all its stages, of which there have been many—but in particular I want to highlight Sharon Bass for great insight and quite rapid turnaround, and Brigid Collins for putting her finger on the heart of the novel version—which made all the difference to me.
Thanks to my old writers group, the Fishers Five—who waded through early versions of the work when it was…umm…well, you know.
As always, thanks to the most important person in my life—Lisa, whose editing is, of course, brilliant and perfect, and every other superlative you can use here, but whose heart is even better.
Table of Contents
Blurb
Title Page
Copyright Page
STS Includes
Other Work
Dedication
Epigraph
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
Launch
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Celebrations & Preparations
NEWS
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Starsling
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
The Long Leg Home
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Mid Flight
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
NEWS
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Arrival
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Aftermath
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
/> Ron Collins, Starflight (Stealing the Sun Book 1)